Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s former business partner, testified Monday in an interview that President Joe Biden once attended dinners with the younger Biden’s business partners as well as spoke to them over the phone, according to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH).
Jordan, one of two Republican members present for the testimony, told the Washington Examiner in a phone interview that the testimony runs contrary to past claims Joe Biden has made about what he knew about his son’s business dealings while he was vice president.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT FORMER HUNTER BIDEN BUSINESS PARTNER DEVON ARCHER
“I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Joe Biden said in 2019 and repeatedly maintained after that.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre delivered a rephrased version of that comment at a press conference this month, however, saying Joe Biden “was never in business with his son.”
At another press conference, she doubled down when confronted about the language change, repeating four times that “nothing has changed” since she said Joe Biden “was never in business with his son.”
“What Joe Biden initially told us, how he had no involvement, he wasn’t involved, he didn’t know. That’s just not accurate,” Jordan said. “Talking to his business partner, we have two dinners with his partners and people that Hunter Biden and Devon Archer are doing business with, one being the wealthiest woman in Russia.”
The dinners took place in 2014 and 2015, and the first one was attended by Russian billionaire Elena Baturina, now-widow of a former Moscow mayor, Archer testified. A Senate report found that Baturina wired a company affiliated with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer $3.5 million in 2014, though Hunter Biden’s access to those funds has been a point of dispute.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a former Trump impeachment lawyer, emerged from Archer’s interview Monday and revealed that Archer said Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone with his business associates and friends about 20 times over 10 years.
Goldman downplayed the revelation, saying Archer said the calls consisted of “casual conversation, niceties, the weather, what’s going on” and that there “wasn’t a single conversation” about business.
Jordan, however, countered that the phone conversations were “significant.”
“Remember, Joe Biden said it didn’t [happen], and it happened, and I think the number Archer gave was around 20 times, and it didn’t surprise me that Joe Biden didn’t get on the phone and say, ‘Hey, we got your message. I’m going to talk to the prosecutor. I’m going to hold up money.’ Of course, that’s not going to happen,” Jordan said. “What’s going to happen is Hunter Biden says, ‘Hey, you guys want to say hello to the vice president? Say hello to my dad, vice president.’ That’s what’s going to happen.”
He added, “It was all to show the influence and sell ‘the brand’ that Devon Archer talked about, so that doesn’t surprise me at all.”
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), the other Republican member present for the testimony, also found Archer’s mention of “the brand” notable.
Among Hunter Biden’s several foreign business ventures, he and Archer held lucrative positions on the board of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma in 2014.
Archer’s testimony comes as allegations against the Bidens mount related to what Republicans have described as the pair’s “influence peddling” for profit.
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An informant alleged, according to an FBI FD-1023 form released this month by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), that the head of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, paid Joe and Hunter Biden each $5 million in exchange for then-Vice President Joe Biden to use his authority to fire a prosecutor probing Burisma for corruption.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in June that the FBI’s source referenced on the form was “a trusted, highly credible informant who has been used by the FBI for years.”
Reese Gorman contributed to this report.
